UK Politics

Boris Johnson’s future hangs in the balance as Tory MPs await the findings of a inquiry by Sue Gray into Downing Street parties during Covid restrictions.The investigation into the gatherings reportedly obtained an email yesterday showing that an aide to the PM was warned that the now infamous garden gathering of 20 May 2020 was against the rules.The email, and reports of at least 12 other alleged rule-breaking gatherings, are being investigated internally by a senior civil servant who has been tasked with establishing the facts of what happened at each.On 8 December last year, the prime minister, who is facing calls to resign over the matter, appointed Sue Gray to look into the reports after Simon Case, the cabinet secretary and the UK’s most senior mandarin, recused himself from the investigation as it emerged a gathering had taken place in his office.Ms Gray, the second permanent secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities who previously worked in Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team, has a fearsome reputation for pulling no punches when it comes to wrongdoing.Her probe does not have the same powers as a judge-led or public inquiry. Some believe the conclusions in the former pub landlord’s report could be written in such a way as to suggest to Mr Johnson, who is fighting for his political life over the ‘partygate’ scandal, that it is last orders and he should resign.According to the Institute for Government thinktank, it is unlikely she will explicitly call for Mr Johnson to quit or rule on whether or not he breached the ministerial code in his responses to the party reports in the House of Commons.When the terms of reference for the investigation were set (by the prime minister) there was no concrete date for its publication and it has apparently been delayed on at least one occasion after fresh allegations emerged and the scope of the investigation widened.Sources told The Daily Telegraph it could be published this week. Reports now say it will be released in the first half of next week. The Independent has contacted the Cabinet Office for comment.Allies of the PM, including Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, have repeatedly called for patience from colleagues calling for the PM to resign over the affair, saying MPs should give the PM space until Ms Gray’s report is published. Mr Johnson has himself repeatedly referred to the investigation when being asked to answer further questions on partygate.Government whips have this week been frantically trying to delay a potential no confidence vote in Mr Johnson as back bench Tory MPs become increasingly restless over his handling of the affair.The PM appeared on Sky News on Tuesday to defend himself against claims by Dominic Cummings, his former chief aide, that he was in fact made aware that the 20 May 2020 party broke the rules. Mr Cummings also accused the PM of lying to parliament, which would be a breach of the ministerial code and therefore usually a resigning matter.”I’m saying categorically that nobody told me, nobody said this was something that was against the rules, doing something that wasn’t a work event because frankly, I can’t imagine why it would have gone ahead, or it would have been allowed to go ahead if it was against the rules,” Mr Johnson said in his response.But the prime minister was then criticised for refusing to accept responsibility for the rules he had set and the response reportedly triggered a fresh wave of no confidence letters going in to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the powerful 1922 Committee.Some rebel MPs claimed that the no confidence vote threshold of 54 letters would be reached by the end of Wednesday, but this never transpired. Allies of the PM subsequently briefed news outlets that the defection of Christian Wakeford to the Labour party earlier in the day had “calmed” the party and made rebels “think twice” about submitting letters.Infighting over Mr Johnson’s future broke out into the Commons on Thursday as MPs plotting to topple the PM accused whips of “blackmailing” them to vote with the government.William Wragg, a senior Tory MP, chair of the public administration committee — and one of those calling for Johnson to resign over the partygate scandal — was first out of the blocks to make the incendiary claims, saying that some of his colleagues had been threatened with funding cuts if they didn’t vote in a specific way. Just a few hours later Christian Wakeford, who defected to the Labour Party on Wednesday and is also calling for the PM to go, stepped forward to tell the BBC that whips had threatened to axe funding for a school in his constituency if he did not support the government on voting against free school meals. More

Rory Stewart has warned it is “very disturbing” that Boris Johnson was ever elected as prime minister when he has a record as a proven liar.The former Conservative cabinet minister said it should be no surprise to anyone that the prime minister has been tripped up by allegations of dishonesty over the No 10 parties.It was also “ironic” that the controversy now seemed likely to topple him – not “one of the worst Covid death threats in the developed world”, he said.Mr Stewart – who was defeated by Mr Johnson in the 2019 leadership race – said, of the partygate scandal: “We should all have expected this.“He has been a very famous public figure for 30 years. The British public has spent 30 years focusing on the fact that he lies, that he’s disorganised, that he betrays almost every personal commitment that he has.“He was manifestly unsuited to be prime minister from the beginning, so it’s very, very disturbing that a great country like Britain should have chosen somebody so unsuitable for the role.”Mr Johnson has twice been forced out of jobs because of dishonesty, once for fabricating a quote when a journalist and then as a shadow minister when he lied to Tory leader Michael Howard about an office affair.But he won the Tory leadership convincingly, as the party’s MPs swallowed their concerns about his character in the belief he is an election winner.That judgement was proved correct when Mr Johnson secured a triumphant landslide at the 2019 general election, as voters backed his promise to “get Brexit done”.Mr Stewart told Sky News he expected the partygate scandal to be “the last nail in the coffin” – ahead of the crucial report by civil servant Sue Gray, next week.But he added: “This is a country which has had one of the worst Covid death threats and one of the poorest economic performances in the developed world.“In a way it’s ironic that what seems to be bringing down the prime minister is the Downing Street party, rather than the record of bad government over the last year and a half.”Mr Stewart said: “I can’t see what future that he has. He may be able to survive for another few months, but he is badly wounded.“And, essentially, in order to be a leader, you need credibility, you need supporters, you need energy, you need enthusiasm, you need confidence.“And those are things that Boris Johnson had in great excess over the last few years and he’s lost it – and it’s very, very difficult to see that returning and very difficult to see him being a credible leader again.” More

A cabinet minister has attempted to rubbish an MP’s claim that he was told a new school would be blocked in his constituency if he defied Boris Johnson, saying he wants to “discredit” the government.The incendiary allegation from Christian Wakeford – who defected from the Conservatives to Labour – came after a senior Tory accused government whips of “blackmail” and said the police should be called in.But Kwasi Kwarteng said he did not believe the claims of threats and intimidation – and turned on Mr Wakeford, calling him a “turncoat”.“I don’t know what his motivations were and, as you’ll appreciate, he’s a Labour MP now and, of course, part of his job is to try and discredit the government,” the business secretary said.But other rebel Tories, considering joining moves to topple the prime minister, have also reported threats, including that damaging stories about them will be planted in newspapers.The Times reported that some are considering publishing private text messages and a secretly recorded conversation with the chief whip, to back up their claims.Mr Wakeford is believed to have been threatened that the new school would not be built in his Bury South seat if voted with Labour in favour of free school meals, in October 2020.“I was threatened that I would not get the school for Radcliffe if I did not vote in one particular way.” he said, on Thursday.“This is a town that’s not had a high school for the best part of 10 years, and how would you feel when holding back the regeneration of a town for a vote?“It didn’t sit comfortably and that was when I was really starting to question my place at that time.”Mr Kwarteng, speaking on Sky News, said the government wanted to “get to the bottom” of the allegations – a day after No 10 said there would be no investigation.But he added: “I’ve been an MP for 12 years now, and I’ve never heard of the kind of allegations that are being made.“Blackmail, the idea that somehow money is being withheld from communities that need it on account of the behaviour of the MPs, I’ve never heard of anything like that.“I find it strange because the whip’s office doesn’t actually have the power over spending in that way.” Mr Kwarteng added: “I don’t think that this is happening.”The bitter Tory infighting is growing as the party awaits Sue Gray’s report into the partygate scandal, which will determine whether Mr Johnson faces a no-confidence vote.Government nerves are fraying after an email central to the charge that the prime minister “lied to parliament” over the No 10 party he attended was “found”.Ms Gray is poised to quiz the senior official who sent the email – warning the prime minister’s aide Martin Reynolds to cancel the “bring your own booze” event – it is believed. More

For Boris Johnson facts have always been flexible.The British prime minister’s career is littered with doctored quotes, tall tales, exaggerations and mistruths. When called out, he has generally offered an apologetic shrug or a guilty grin, and moved on. Plenty of people were willing to forgive him.At least until now. Revelations that the prime minister and his staff partied while Britain was under coronavirus restrictions have provoked public outrage and prompted many in the Conservative Party to consider dumping their leader. The Conservatives picked Johnson because his image as a cheerful rule-breaker — the naughty schoolboy of British politics — gave him a rare ability to connect with voters. Now, many are having second thoughts.“His fans would say he’s a force of nature — he doesn’t let things get in his way,” said Steven Fielding professor of political history at the University of Nottingham.“Sometimes he’s been caught out, but mostly he’s got away with it,” Fielding added. “Now the reality is becoming more apparent to more and more people.”Johnson has often been able to talk his way out of crises. The Oxford-educated politician has used words to create the image of a rumpled jokester with a mop of blond hair who doesn’t take himself too seriously. Quips and jokes tumble out of him, sometimes in Latin or ancient Greek. That persona made Johnson a popular guest on the humorous TV show “Have I Got News for You” from the late 1990s onwards, and brought him global fame as London’s boosterish mayor between 2008 and 2016. Many people thought he was too lightweight ever to become prime minister, and Johnson didn’t contradict them. He disguised his ambition with jokes, saying he had as much chance of becoming prime minister as of “finding Elvis on Mars” or being “reincarnated as an olive.” In fact, he had long dreamed of power. His sister Rachel Johnson has said his childhood ambition was to be “world king.” But his route to the top was haphazard. As a young journalist at The Times of London he fabricated a quote about King Edward II from a historian, who also happened to be his godfather. He was fired, but that didn’t stop him becoming Brussels correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in the early 1990s, filing exaggerated stories of EU waste and red tape. Those “Euromyths” about one-size-fits-all condoms and plans to ban “bendy bananas” helped turn British opinion against the bloc, and ultimately lead to Johnson becoming the Brexit champion who would years later bring the U.K. out of the EU.Brexit was won in a 2016 referendum campaign that contained many questionable claims, notably the allegation — often repeated by Johnson — that Britain gave the EU 350 million pounds a week that could instead be spent on the U.K.’s health service. Johnson suffered an early political setback when then-Conservative leader Michael Howard fired him in 2004 for lying about an extramarital affair. A month earlier, Howard forced him to apologize to the city of Liverpool for accusing its residents of “wallowing” in victimhood.Opponents long argued that Johnson’s loose grasp of facts — and history of glibly offensive comments — made him unfit for high office. Over the years Johnson has called Papua New Guineans cannibals, claimed that “part Kenyan” Barack Obama had an ancestral dislike of Britain and compared Muslim women who wear face-covering veils to “letter boxes.”Johnson has usually responded by dismissing offensive comments as jokes, or by accusing journalists of dredging up long-ago remarks. Attacking the media — along with “lefty London lawyers” — is a longstanding populist tactic of Johnson. His biographer Andrew Gimson has called him the “Merry England PM” who depicts his opponents as joyless puritans.Now, though, Johnson’s allies worry that the tide has turned. Johnson has apologized for the lockdown-breaching parties in uncharacteristically subdued and carefully worded statements. He has stopped short of admitting personal wrongdoing, saying he believed he acted within the rules.But many Britons who stuck to lockdown rules imposed by the government — cut off from friends and family, unable to visit relatives in nursing homes and hospitals — have scoffed at Johnson’s “partygate” excuses, including his claim that he thought a “bring your own booze” garden party was a work event.Chris Curtis, head of political polling at Opinium Research, said public trust in the prime minister had plummeted and Johnson’s personal approval ratings were now “pretty dire.”“It has always been true that the public would prefer to have a pint with Boris Johnson but wouldn’t necessarily trust him to look after their kids,” Curtis said. “But what we’ve seen happen with this crisis is that now people say they would be less keen to have a pint with him — and people really wouldn’t trust him to look after their kids.”Next week, senior civil servant Sue Gray is expected to conclude an investigation into the partying allegations. If she does not find that Johnson knowingly broke the rules, Conservative lawmakers may hold back from a no-confidence vote to topple him.But Fielding said Johnson’s brand has now been irrevocably tarnished, even if the immediate crisis passes.“It will recede, but I don’t think it will recede to the level that makes him a viable leader for the Conservative Party going into the next election,” Fielding said. “He’s a dead duck.” More

Britain and the United States have warned Vladimir Putin to “desist and step back” from war in Ukraine or risk being dragged into a prolonged conflict.In a message to the Russian president, foreign secretary Liz Truss says Russia could be dragged into a quagmire similar to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.Her comments came amid a buildup of Russian forces near the border with Ukraine, which prompted President Joe Biden to warn Putin would pay a “dear price” for any invasion. Mr Biden on Thursday said he had been “absolutely clear” with Mr Putin that moving troops across Ukraine’s border would constitute an invasion, while Boris Johnson said that an incursion would “be a disaster for not just for Russia, it would be a disaster for the world”.The prime minister added that “the UK stands squarely behind the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine”.Russia announced on Thursday that 140 of its warships and support vessels, 60 planes, 1,000 units of military hardware and around 10,000 servicemen would take place in a sweeping set of exercises this month.The country’s military moves are being closely scrutinised by the west in light of a troop buildup near Ukraine which has unsettled the Nato allies and sparked fears of a looming war. Mr Putin’s government strongly denies that it has any plans to invade Ukraine.In a speech in Australia on Friday, Ms Truss will say the “Kremlin has not learned the lessons of history” and that an “invasion will only lead to a terrible quagmire and loss of life, as we know from the Soviet-Afghan war and conflict in Chechnya”.She will use the speech, at a think tank in Sydney, to call on countries to side with the west against “global aggressors”, who she said were “emboldened in a way we haven’t seen since the Cold War”.“They seek to export dictatorship as a service around the world,” she is expected to say. “That is why regimes like Belarus, North Korea and Myanmar find their closest allies in Moscow and Beijing.“We need to work with partners like Australia, Israel, India, Japan, Indonesia and more. By building closer ties with our friends and drawing other countries closer to the orbit of free-market democracies, will ultimately make us all safer and freer in the years to come.”But the UK may struggle to convince other countries it has a place at the helm of global leadership, having shredded its foreign policy reputation in many capitals during the course of Brexit talks.Just a day earlier Maros Sefcovic, the vice president of the European Commission had told MEPs in the European Parliament: “The United Kingdom are our neighbours, our allies, and I think all of us in this house would like to see them again as our strategic partners.“For that to happen, we need to rebuild the trust, and trust is built by respecting our agreements – the agreements which were recently signed and ratified – be it on withdrawal, be it on trade and cooperation, or be it the proper implementation of the protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.”Mr Sefcovic said the EU would show “flexibility”, adding: “But we need a good partner on the other side.”Labour leader Keir Starmer said ahead of Ms Truss’s speech that Russia’s “actions and threats cannot be justified nor tolerated and are driving a dangerous escalation of tension in the region and wider world”.After meeting with the Ukrainian ambassador Vadym Prystaiko Sir Keir said Labour would “continue to press the UK government to step up efforts with European and NATO allies to develop a united approach which uses the full spectrum of our capabilities to deter the Russian government’s ambitions”.“We must show that any attempts to undermine Ukraine’s integrity will be met with a strong, consistent and resolute response.” More

Rebel Tory MPs have spoken of facing intimidation and threats for turning against Boris Johnson, following a bombshell claim that those close to the prime minister have resorted to blackmail to keep him in office.Senior Conservative William Wragg sensationally revealed that he had received reports of Johnson loyalists threatening to place smear stories in the press about Tories considering declarations of no confidence in the prime minister.And he said that MPs had told him of warnings that investment in their constituencies would be at risk if they failed to back Mr Johnson in battle to save his political life.The prime minister insisted he had seen “no evidence” to back the claims, which come amid a vicious Tory civil war over allegations of lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.But Tory MP Andrew Bridgen told The Independent that he believed a critical story about him which appeared days after he submitted a confidence letter was intended to deter colleagues from following his example.“I was one of the first MPs out of the blocks calling for Boris Johnson to go, and within days there was a smear story out there,” said the North West Leicestershire MP.“That wasn’t just to intimidate me, it was used to intimidate other people and say to them ‘This is what will happen to you if you sign a letter’.”Another MP said they and others had been “hounded” with negative briefings despite making clear that they would wait for the partygate report by Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray before coming to a judgement – something the PM has appealed for people to do.“There are a number of MPs who have told me there have been questions raised about funding,” said the red wall MP. “The whips appear to be picking on the ones they think are weaker, but it is rebounding on them because people who were previously unsure are now moving towards putting letters in.”Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison said she was the victim of “totally fabricated” briefings accusing her of being a leader of a “pork pie plot” to remove Johnson, or of planning to defect to Labour.“I am incredibly angry about the Downing Street parties and the prime minister’s response,” the 2019 intake MP told the Northern Echo. “But to suggest I’m leading a coup is bonkers.”Mr Bridgen said the level of pressure being put on Tory MPs was “unprecedented in my experience”, adding: “My advice to colleagues who have faced intimidation is that the best solution is to ensure that those making threats are removed from positions of power so they can’t enact them.”Mr Wragg, who chairs the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (Pacac), said MPs had complained of “pressures and intimidation from members of the government because of their declared or assumed desire for a vote of confidence in the party leadership”.He told the committee: “The intimidation of a member of parliament is a serious matter. The reports of which I’m aware would seem to constitute blackmail.”Mr Wragg, who is one of a handful of Tories to have confirmed submitting a confidence letter to 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady, urged any MPs facing intimidation to go the police.Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle later said that it would be “contempt” to use intimidation to obstruct MPs from fulfilling their duties, and warned the Commons that its members are “not above the criminal law”.The Metropolitan Police said they would consider any complaints made to officers.But Mr Johnson, visiting a medical centre in Somerset, insisted: “I’ve seen no evidence, heard no evidence, to support any of those allegations.”And a No 10 spokesperson said: “We are not aware of any evidence to support what are clearly serious allegations. If there is any evidence to support these claims we would look at it very carefully.”Former Tory MP Christian Wakeford, who sensationally defected to Labour on Wednesday after demanding Mr Johnson’s resignation, said that he was warned that funding for a school in his Bury South constituency might be withdrawn if he did not “vote in a particular way”.“This is a town that’s not had a high school for the best part of 10 years and how would you feel holding back the regeneration of the town for a vote?” he said.“It didn’t sit comfortably and that was really my starting to question my place where I was and ultimately where I am now.”Boris Johnson says ‘no evidence’ on ‘blackmail’ allegationsScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the allegations are “serious” and should be “properly investigated”, while first minister Nicola Sturgeon said it would be “corruption” if investment was being held back from the constituencies of Mr Johnson’s critics.But culture secretary Nadine Dorries sought to dismiss the allegations as “attention-seeking behaviour from William Wragg”, a long-standing critic of the PM.Describing his claims as “nonsense”, she told BBC News: “This is not how government works.”And Workington MP Mark Jenkinson, another member of the 2019 group, said that he had been spoken to by whips during earlier rebellions, but insisted: “I can categorically state that none of those conversations have ever involved threats, implicit or explicit.”Tory MP Michael Fabricant, a former whip, described Mr Wragg’s comments as “disgraceful”, and asked: “If [William Wragg] was being ‘blackmailed’ as he claims, what is there about his private life that he doesn’t want made public?”“If I reported every time I had been threatened by a whip or if a whip reported every time I had threatened them, the police wouldn’t have any time to conduct any other police work,” said the Lichfield MP.Veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale, who was the first to send a letter to Sir Graham, told The Independent that current whipping behaviour was “like being tickled with a feather” compared to the brutal tactics of earlier generations.But he said that threatening to withdraw constituency investment would “cross a line”.Rebel Tories were today holding fire after a predicted flood of confidence letters failed to materialise on Wednesday, with most expecting that the threshold of 54 needed to trigger a leadership vote will not be reached until Ms Gray’s report is published.But senior backbencher Steve Baker said he believed Mr Johnson had reached “checkmate”.Mr Baker, a ringleader of the plot to unseat Theresa May over her Brexit plans, said he was not involved in organising efforts to remove Johnson.But he told BBC’s Political Thinking podcast: “We didn’t make Boris Johnson for his meticulous grasp of tedious rules, but this is appalling and the public are rightly furious.“At the moment I’m afraid it does look like checkmate. Whether he can save himself we’ll see.” More

Boris Johnson’s removal from Downing Street would be an opportunity to reconsider Brexit, Conservative grandee Michael Heseltine has said.The prime minister is under growing pressure from Tory backbenchers over the Partygate scandal, with some MPs predicting he will face a leadership contest once the investigation into drinks gatherings is published.Conservative peer Lord Heseltine appeared to suggest that Mr Johnson’s exit as a result of the current public “anger” could lead to a second referendum on Brexit.The senior Tory, who is a leading campaigner for another vote on EU membership, told Times Radio: “The Brexit agenda was a pack of lies … What happens if Boris goes, does Brexit go – throw the whole thing up in the air?”The former deputy PM added: “Will the majority, now, of people who believe Brexit was wrong have another chance to express their view?”Lord Heseltine warned that the public mood was febrile, and called for the Tory leadership question to be “resolved quickly”.He said: “People are extremely angry, and they turn to extremes in those circumstances, we know, with horrific consequences in history. So something has to be resolved quickly.“This is against the background where the government is going to be less popular, for one reason, and that is the falling living standards that are now built into the inflation cycle.”Earlier on Thursday, former Labour prime minister Sir Tony Blair said it would be a mistake to start campaigning for EU membership any time soon.Asked whether he would want Britain to rejoin the bloc in future, Sir Tony said: “It would be a political error to revive the whole argument – you just have to accept that, no matter how passionately opposed to it I was.”He said the focus should be on making the relationship with the EU “work”, adding: “You don’t want a situation where your prime minister is not on good terms with European leaders.”Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said this week that he had ruled out a return to the single market or the customs union. “There’s no case for rejoining, so we have to make it work. We are out and we’re staying out,” he told The Guardian.Meanwhile, senior Tory Brexiteer Steve Baker said on Thursday that it looked like “checkmate” for Mr Johnson, suggesting that his time at No 10 was coming to an end.Fellow Brexiteer MP Andrew Bridgen – one of seven MPs to have publicly declared that they want Mr Johnson to go, and that they have submitted no-confidence letters – has predicted that a vote will take place next week.To trigger a leadership challenge, 54 Conservative MPs must write letters of no confidence to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee. A simple majority of Tory MPs – around 180 – would then have to vote against Mr Johnson in order to spark a leadership contest for a new prime minister. More